1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tilting device for cropping a sheet of laminated glass.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, in order to carry out the truncation, known in the jargon as “cropping”, of a flat sheet of laminated or stratified glass being worked on a worktable of a cutting machine, two operating principles are generally applied in order to mechanically (i.e. not via heat or chemical means) break the intermediate layer of plastic material: bending of the sheet in the cutting region, or traction of the sheet in the direction of movement of the two parts of the sheet defined by the cut.
Bending of the sheet is generally done by means of two series of suckers, which are designed to adhere to the inner face of the sheet in proximity to the cutting line, with a first series of suckers on one side of the cutting line, and the second series on the other side.
The suckers are then lowered a few millimeters in order to produce a bending, or a cycle of bendings, downwards, in order to achieve the complete breakage of the intermediate layer of plastic material.
This downward bending, or these downward bending cycles, are often insufficient to achieve the immediate separation of the two parts of the sheet being worked, thus requiring to resort to ancillary activities which lengthen the working times.
Traction of the two parts of the cut sheet is achieved with means for gripping each of the two parts, comprising various actuator means, and means for moving at least one of the two parts of the sheet on the plane of arrangement of the same worktable, such movement means being complex in terms of devising and operation.
The traction solution is therefore effective, but it requires machines that are relatively complex and expensive.
The aim of the present invention is to devise a tilting device for cropping a sheet of laminated glass, which is capable of overcoming the drawbacks of the above mentioned known cropping techniques.
Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a tilting device which is capable of bending a sheet around the cut region, in a more effective manner than in known tilting devices.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tilting device that is cheaper to make than traction cropping devices yet no less effective.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tilting device for cropping a sheet of laminated glass that is structurally simple and easy to use, and which can be made using known systems and technologies and at low cost.